Dharma and Greg.

When John and I were in college, my friend Emily said to us "you guys are like Dharma and Greg".

Very indignant, I replied, "I look nothing like Jenna Elfman!" Because, clearly, I look NOTHING like Jenna Elfman, the actress that plays Dharma.

"No, no, no" Emily explained. The way you and John act together reminds me of Dharma and Greg..."

"Huh", I said, a little stumped.

However as the years go by, one after another, after another, I think she's right.

John, like Greg, is completely professional, organized, perfectly precise, reliable and sweet. Plus, they both like to wear ties.

I, like Dharma, am completely flighty, and am becoming increasingly nutty and crunchy as the years rage on, haha.

My perfectly poised husband has gone along with many of my quirky ideas over the years and has been quite the gentlemen every step of the way.

Today we are celebrating another fabulous year together! It's our 15 year milestone!(we married young:)

In honor of our anniversary, here are the top 10 things I love about you, John(in no particular order).

10. You willingly accompanied me to Santa Cruz to check out a super cool homeopathic doctor...whom you lovingly refer to as 'the witch doctor', and call her remedies 'eye of a newt' & such.

9. You win house-boy of the year with your mad cooking and cleaning skills. Hands down, you make the best kale and Spanish rice, ever.

8. You love to read books on marriage and listen to radio shows on the topic all the time. It's pretty darn cute if you ask me.

7. You are so good at handling our money. Even calling business meetings at our kitchen table, where you highlight the areas where 'we could be doing better'. And you religiously teach our boys how to save, spend and give.

6. The way you smile at our boys when they do something you find irresistibly adorable. You are the most amazing father ever. Everyone says so.

7. How stubborn{resolute} you are. I love that you are not wishy-washy.

8. You are surprisingly social and absolutely love to have people over. You are always happy to attend any event and you love it when the boys have friends and neighbors over too.

9. You fill up my gas tank when it's getting low. And you always do the icky dirty jobs around the house, without me having to ask you.

10. You are SO calm and laid-back. You perfectly balance me out, since I can be pretty neurotic, especially while raising your 4 strapping lads!

I thank God for you and feel so honored to be your wife. I love you honey!

dandelion love.

Twain is obsessed with his black utilitarian boots.

He absolutely loves them and INSISTS on wearing them everywhere we go.

"Boops, mommmmmmmy!" he squeals in excitement. "Baby put za boops on foots" he tells me(or some equivalent thereof).

Which is fine by me since he can put them on all by himself. It can be quite the fiasco each morning getting shoes on all of their {combined} 8 feet.

Lately we have been enjoying{mauling} the dandelions that seem to have obsessively popped up all over the green belt.



Why hello little tush.

Around here we show our deep love and respect for dandelions by stomping the tar out of them.

Twain and Ollie call them flowas(flowers).

oooooh i love 'dose squishy cheeks!

at least he's not color blind

"Calvin, come here", I ordered.

"Calvin, what color is your right shoe?" I asked.

"Blue" he said, starting to smile.

"And what color is your left shoe?" I asked, pointing to his orange striped shoe.

"Orange" giggle.giggle. he replied.

Well, at least he's not color blind.


This has been going on for over a month. John and I have no idea why he's doing this.


He has always had his own sense of style. It's one of the many things I love about him.
But I make him change when we are running around town.

Would you let your kid out in public like this?

you are mine

While reading Radical, my immediate {human} response was "Ahhh! Woe is me! I'm not doing nearly enough! I need to do more. What can I doooooooo?

followed by,

MUST.GO.BUY.JACKETS.AND.MITTENS.NOW. And randomly hand them out to people on the streets.

eh, it was cold out. It made sense. Kind of.

At the same time I suspected I was going about this all wrong. I was saved by faith. Not by works. I knew this.

Still, I could not help that frantic feeling that I needed somehow to prove to God that I was much MUCH more serious about caring for the needy. By buying jackets and mittens of course. I had not purchased anything yet, but I was strongly considering it.

While all these thoughts were swirling through my head, John asked me to listen to a radio intervew on Focus on the Family. There were interviewing Dan Wooley about his new book, "unshaken".

Dan Wooley. Remember him?

He was our old college friend working with Compassion International last year in Haiti when the devastating earthquake hit. And Hotel Montana collapsed on him and his friend David Hames. Dan was stuck in the elevator shaft for 3 days while David went to be with Jesus.

So I sat there folding laundry, listening with great interest as Dan told about the secret part of his story that we did not hear about last year.

[As Dan lay injured in the elevator shaft, he realized that his injuries were substantial enough that he might die and meet his Maker...soon.

And this scared him. You see, even though he was doing missions work in Haiti, he realized that his zest for the Lord had grown cold the last 3 years.

He had grown...lukewarm.

And now, here he was, faced with death.

What could he do?

Not much. He cried out to God for forgiveness.

And there he lay.

There was nothing he could do. Nothing he could do to make up for the last 3 years.

There was no amount of jackets and mittens that could make up for this one.

Dan said that in his helpless state, God miraculously came down and reached out to him in that elevator shaft and said "I had to hunt you down in the bottom of an elevator shaft in Haiti to get you back. You are mine."

And he just felt God's immediate presence envelop him in a way he never felt before.

Dan encouraged others to reach out to God if their love for him had grown cold.]

After the interview ended I just sat there in amazement at God's clear voice of reassurance to me that night--

"you are mine"

You see, there is nothing I can do to make up for my past failures. No amount of jackets and mittens can be purchased to secure my salvation. God first {and foremost} wants my heart. And he will do anything to get it. You can do wonderful things, like even be a missionary in Haiti, but if your heart is far from God, then what good is it? 

I truly believe that if God has grabbed your heart, then all of those other things will soon follow...the jackets, the mittens and more...[more than I could even imagine in the days to come].

to be cont.

why, hello kitty.

Recorded in our family record book

Finn: "Calvin, You're gonna get Hello Kitty for your birthday"

Calvin(an eeping pile of misery): "sniff...hiccup...wail...sob...sniff...hiccup...squeak...but....I...don't ....want...Hello...Kitty...sob...sniff...."

I did not know whether to reprimand Finn for tormenting his younger brother.

Or to laugh at Calvin's unbelievable hysterics.

Because, um, hello. Who wouldn't want Hello Kitty for their birthday?

Later, I found a suspicious piece of paper on Finn's bed.

I lunged at the paper with great interest. But that Finn-cat was too slick and sly for me. He snatched the paper and crumpled it into a ball. He then chucked it under his bed, shrieking, "NO!"

Of course I dove under the bed and grasped the crumpled paper til it was safely in my clutches:

Ok, five bucks for the person who can tell me what's wrong with the above picture.

a) the cat looks nothing like Hello Kitty

b) the cat looks more like a mouse

or

c) it's spelled Hello Kitty. Not Hellow Kitty

d) all of the above.

If you answered d, you are correct. You can collect your $5 at the end of lent.

So I printed up a picture of Hello Kitty and sat the boys down for a lecture. I firmly explained the rules of this household:

If you are going to draw a picture of Hello Kitty, you better draw her right. And spell her name right.

Not bad for Finn's first(or second) attempt. Though I find the horns a tad distracting.

And by Calvin. 

Once again, not bad for a first attempt. Though she looks a bit rickety...like she has aged quite a bit. Perhaps she's in her 70's or early 80's?? All she is missing is her cane.

silence

Hello dear blog friends,

Lent is coming soon. March 9th.

Last year I gave up blogging for 40 days.

This time, I thought I'd try something different.

For 40 days, I plan on blogging with the comments section disabled.

Yep. Blogging in silence, with no comments.

Why?

To be completely honest, it's partly because the nature of blogging is starting to confuse me and this is the only way I know how to respond at the present time.

A few days ago, A girl I never met, yet deeply respect, wrote a blog post, that sent ripples though blog land. It definitely gave me something to think about regarding the nature of blogging that I have never even thought about.

And now she is walking away from blogging. I really like this girl and think she's 'spot on' regarding certain negative aspects of blogging. I wish my blog was immune to these things...but I think it would be unwise for me to assume that I cannot be effected. After all, I do not blog in a bubble of isolation!

I do not plan to pack up my little band of brothers and leave the blog world just yet.

But, I do want to think more and make sure I'm blogging for the right reasons.

I really want to hear God's voice more clearly. So I am turning off the comments section to free my mind from distractions. To know in my heart that as I blog, I am not trying to seek approval from others. I sincerely want to live my life in the hopes of pleasing God and bringing him the glory. And this is the only way I know how to do that for now.

I do not think that the 'comment section' is wrong. A lot of time, it can uplift the downtrodden or celebrate a happy occasion. Other times, it's just plain old fashioned fun. No harm in that. Obviously it depends entirely on your heart's motive when publishing a post.

For example, here are some things I am pondering of late.

1)Say I came up with a fabulous new craft idea and wanted to share it on my blog. Am I sincerely sharing it for the benefit of others? Or do I subconsciously want to gain praise and make a name for myself? Bleh. That does not sound delightful. That's not what I want. At least, I don't want to want that.

2)Or even more confusing...what if I want to share something wonderful that God is doing in my life. Am I doing it in a positive manner, to shine my light before men so they will praise my father in heaven(Matt. 5:16)? Or am I just like a Pharisee, doing everything for all men to see(Matt 23:5)? Double bleh. That sounds horrid. I certainly don't want to do that.

I really want my heart to be sincere and in the right place. That's all that really matters. But even as I write this, I am shaking my head--everything I am writing sounds "right", but there are still so many times when my heart is in the wrong place. It is as evil as the next: Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can understand it?"

Yes, that very verse was in my bible reading this very day. Ironic.

My funny little niece, Emily, claims "to be the chief of sinners". So is her auntie, unfortunately. Please don't think that I am writing these words here, thinking my heart's motive is pure. Ha, that would be the worst conclusion you could draw from this post.

I am not here to judge the motives of your heart. Many of you have become dear friends. I sincerely love you from the bottom of my heart and I only want what is best for you. I am not pointing any fingers. The only finger I can point is at my own face.

And what is best for me right now is to turn off the comments...

...to write something with absolutely no expectation of hearing anything in return.

...to read my Bible that day and make sure that hearing HIS voice is all that is needed, period.

I will miss hearing your sweet little voices. Any time you took time of out of your day to say something was always greatly appreciated. I still plan to pop by and say hello on your blogs.

I hope to cut down on my computer time though. I can't wait to play outside more with the boys. To read more Bible stories with them. To show them more of the real world.

At the end of lent I will re-evaluate where God wants this little blog of mine to go.

SO next post I write will start the silence.

This is my little way of pulling my blog out of the commotion and into seclusion and quiet for a bit.

p.s. I know that blogging can be very light-hearted and nonsensically fun, in a good way. I have written my share of silly things and I don't plan on being Miss Serious Pants all the time. And there will likely still be little drawings from by boys and sweet little things they do. However, at the same time, I don't want to give the impression that I am only about silly things. God is so important to me and I want you to know that too! I realize I am just a girl and that I have no business being up on some soap box ranting my views. That would be ridiculous. But, I would like to share what God is doing in my life.